Harnadha Venkata Kumar ,
IBS Bangalore, (‘01)

iGamingWorks

About me…

We have recently launched a small homegrown start-up company called iGamingWorks (iGW). Currently eight people work here. This is a very niche concept and basically focused on innovative games for online gaming. Our concept works on outsourcing model of business services and software development activities. We have already registered patents & IPR for two games each in Poker and Dominos and we are in the process of doing more. The whole idea of this initiated when my two colleagues and I were discussing on a small piece of game over lunch. Now this has become larger than a game. We have developed the basic owned games in addition to our patented games in Poker, Casino, Bingo and Dominos segments. We are very keen to move up the ante in the mobile gaming too. In this venture, I work as the Lead of the organization, focusing on business growth and player acquisitions. Earlier, I was working for PartyGaming Plc, which is the world’s largest online gaming company today.

Me and my family …

Basically I come from a business family and was born and brought-up in Chennai. I moved to Bangalore for further studies. In 2004, I found my life partner and now I’m blessed with a daughter. My wife is also a partner in our venture and handles the creative designs and operations of the business.

Life after IBS…

Things have steadily progressed than what they were earlier after IBS. IBS has helped me to build those business-thinking capabilities and I’m happy that there is so much that I learnt in the process. Today, things are more competitive; people are moving faster and are more demanding. Customers are looking for that perfect product in the very first view. These things require managerial skills at all levels whether we deal with internal or external customers. I learnt more personally about these expectations and idealizing from those taught in books and closed-rooms.  Everything is the same and it certainly depends on how I have experienced those lessons in different manners. In business, the fundamentals can never change, how one wishes to imply these fundamentals in different manners makes him / her different as a thinker and person.

Handling high pressure situation…  

As we are dealing with an online gaming community and most of our business clients are based outside India, we have a tremendous pressure to deliver the best in the first instance. High-pressure situations have become most common to us now.  The main reasons for any high-pressure situations can be due to our self created constraints. This could vary from time to time, business continuity, financial impact, un-kept promises etc., and fortunately, we have a small and strong team and each of us know our span of control. Initially we did hit situations like these but we worked on the basics and kept ourselves transparent with our clients and built trust and confidence with them. Today we enjoy a very good leverage in performing and delivering things according to what they see. In trying to keep those situations minimal, we keep things simple, well communicated and transparent and these have always helped us benefit more and resulted in getting more references from our clients.

Balancing work-family…

Off late, I have been traveling very frequently, and there is less time that I can spend with my family. My wife is aware about my objectives and our goals. But when I’m home, I always make it a point to spend at least four hours with my daughter everyday. These could be reciting rhymes to her or getting involved with her activity work or taking her out for a petty shopping or watching our favorite Tom & Jerry shows.  

De-stressing …

I’m generally relaxed when I spend time with my daughter. Usually, I gift myself with something that I require on each achievement.  This has been my favorite relaxation therapy and spending time watching a movie with family or with friends has helped me a lot.  

Biggest lesson so far in life…

There are so many lessons that I have learnt and I’m still learning both professionally and personally. I think there is no end to that either. Professionally, I learnt how much it helps when you have your client involved during important junctures or strategic decisions. It is good to have one smiling customer than a bunch of frowning customers. Personally, at all times, have patience on all occasions. You don’t have to work very hard or as many say work smart, but work on the things that you like to do, love to achieve and you are passionate about. Do things only if you think it is right or else open-up and say you are not convinced. Lastly, failure to prepare is preparation to fail.

My vision about the future of IT Industry—the Indian and global scenario…
 
The world is shrinking and IT is the cause for this. Indian IT sector will go through a major change soon. We will see more things (M & A) happening sooner on the global front. The sooner this rapid change happens, better for the people working in this sector. The pay scales will become more uniform across the globe. Companies will face a major competition in leadership roles, as there will be more positions for the young—exposure and adaptability will become vital. The hard fact is that, we would need to compete with our neighbors China and Far East (Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan etc,). These regions are posing a major threat in our shrinking profits. Big companies have the strength to expand on these regions, but the smaller ones have to create their niche to survive and continue. We will surpass our estimates of software exports each year but how long can we continue to do that is a bigger question at the macro level. I’m sure we as a company too stand a lot of challenges to meet and tides to wade. We know mobile gaming is already a cluttered business domain with big pockets of money available. How fast we can get there and compete is an open challenge to us at this juncture.

My friends and batch mates at IBS…

I’m in touch with them either through IM or email or through phone. I did plan to attend most of the alumni parties and get-togethers but something or the other comes up at the last minute making my presence essential. Earlier, I was slightly regular in attending the events organized by IBSAF but now things have become different. 

My advice to fellow alumni…

Those working in specialized areas of IT like Enterprise Applications (in SAP, Oracle etc.), Business Intelligence and Product based companies have a lot of things to capitalize on soon. Small software services oriented companies will either expand or merge or may be washed-out. Gaming domain has a lot to offer and will go through the same situations. The US had closed its doors for Online gaming / gambling in 2006 with an Act/Bill. However, the rest of the world is available for us to continue. Remember all cultures have different traditional games. There is a need for innovative games among the young users. How fast we can deliver to the market with the idea will impact the revenues of a company.  ◊